Stopping, seeing, being......

“The great teachings unanimously emphasize that all the peace, wisdom, and joy in the universe are already within us; we don't have to gain, develop, or attain them. We're like a child standing in a beautiful park with his eyes shut tight. We don't need to imagine trees, flowers, deer, birds, and sky; we merely need to open our eyes and realize what is already here, who we really are -- as soon as we quit pretending we're small or unholy.” unknown I was out driving this past week, lost if you really needed to know, when on the side of the road we saw a movement. Since it was a country road and  the only traffic we saw was a beat up pick-up truck who got really really annoyed at our slow sight-seeing kind of driving, I felt pretty safe to just stop there in the middle of the country lane. The driver passed us by at his first chance and I caught myself thinking to myself even though it wasn't nice, "damn redneck". When we saw the movement, we stopped, stopped and backed up and just sat.  I rolled down my window and all of us stared at each other almost in a stare down of  "who's gonna blink first". It seems they were as curious about us humanly kind of beings as we were about them.   The sun was just beginning to set behind the trees and the lighting was tranquil--almost breath-grabbing..and we sat and waited in the midst of something mysteriously peaceful. Finally, I grabbed my camera because I sensed this as a holy connectional kind of moment and I wanted to remember it. They didn't pose but stared directly at the camera, I think I can almost see them laughing at me from behind their somber looks.   I took their picture and then drove away leaving them to talk about us strange folk in the white car. The world is connected in all kinds of ways, through atoms and electrons and quantum stuff I don't even know the name of---but we are connected in ways we really can't even begin to process. We learn so much from each encounter don't we?--if we allow ourselves to take the time to process.  Life, it flies by and we occupy it with all kind of things.  These two gentle gals with glassy black eyes--they taught me an important lesson...it's okay to be curious...okay to stop on the side of the road and take a minute to breathe....taught me that in tiny little moments in the midst of country road and friendship and sunset.....something so ordinary can pop up, enter scene and create an extraordinarily holy moment. May something or someone surprise you this Sunday and allow you for just the smallest of moment realize that the ground on which you sit, drive, stand, walk upon....all of it...is Holy ground. may you experience IT in small and large doses... May it be so.... The radical rambler....